It is to denounce the growth of the tax gap between the richest and the less well-off that the members of the Échec aux paradis fiscals collective gathered in front of the offices of the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) in Montreal, Thursday morning.
The demonstrators thus wished to recall the importance of “making multinationals and large fortunes pay their fair share”, while a kitty estimated between $ 18.1 and $ 23.4 billion would escape the Canadian tax authorities annually through various avoidance maneuvers , indicated last year the first report on the overall federal tax gap, covering the years 2014 to 2018.
An amount that could be even more astronomical if other elements were taken into account in the calculation of the ARC, such as the share of tax that large foreign companies doing business in the country do not pay because they have no office in Canada, for example, indicates the coordinator and spokesperson for the group, Edgar Lopez-Asselin.
“Large companies are thus responsible for 70% of the tax gap in corporate income tax reporting, while they account for 1% of registered companies. Failures to report foreign investments by wealthy individuals cost Canadian taxpayers nearly $3 billion each year,” the group also said in a press release.
A year has passed since the publication of the report and very little has been done to try to stem the problem of tax avoidance or to recover the sums that escape tax, insists Mr. Lopez-Asselin, in an interview with The Canadian Press.
“We understand that one of the main issues is the difficulty of documenting the extent of the problem,” he admits. But since the publication of the report, there has been no news or comments on its content. There has been no announcement or new measures put in place to recover this shortfall.
“Right now, we have more questions than answers,” continues Mr. Lopez-Asselin. The situation shows failures at the CRA in its collection strategy. For us, it is a lack of transparency and democracy that these sums are not repatriated. »
The current inflationary context only accentuates the wealth gaps and, consequently, the tax gaps, adds the spokesperson.
The Échec aux paradis paradis collective is calling for better funding for the CRA, a tightening of the laws governing tax avoidance maneuvers and increased transparency within the CRA.
By better equipping the CRA to recover the billions of dollars it misses each year, “small taxpayers” would have less to compensate, whether by paying taxes or being deprived of certain services, for lack of public funds to support them. .
“We should give legal tools to the Agency and increase its funding to enable its inspectors to do their job better, to give them more leeway,” maintains Mr. Lopez-Asselin. We must close the main loopholes that allow large companies not to pay their fair share in taxes. »
This dispatch was produced with the financial assistance of the Meta Exchange and The Canadian Press for the news.